Metallica drummer owned painting fetches $13.5m at Christie's

London, Nov 14 : A painting of a boxer by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which was owned by Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, has fetched 13.5 million dollars at an auction.

On the other hand, a Francis Bacon painting failed to sell, fuelling fears over the state of the art market.

The painting by Basquiat was a highlight of Christie's contemporary art auction in New York.

Though, Bacon's Study for Self Portrait was billed as a highlight of the auction, and was expected to fetch 40 million dollars, the bidding stalled at 27.4million dollars and the auction was halted.

A total of 75 contemporary works went under the hammer at the sale on Wednesday evening, but almost a third failed to attract a buyer. The auction took a total of 113.6million dollars, half the low pre-sale estimate of 227million dollars.

"The market is continuing, but clearly at a different price level," BBC news quoted Christie's president Marc Porter, as saying.

"There's no panic in the market, but there is an adjustment. While it had declined, you've seen it find a stable level, with a lot of support," he added.

Baird Ryan, managing director of the art-related financial services firm Art Capital Group, said there continued to be demand for fine art.